Gardinar, Asa Bird - Gen.

Posted May 30th, 2009 by Linda Horton

GEN. ASA BIRD GARDINER

Major General Asa Bird Gardiner, for a number of years president of the Rhode Island Society of the Cincinnati and one of the most active workers of that organization, died suddenly at his home in New York on Wednesday, following an apoplectic stroke which he suffered on Saturday last. He was in his eightieth year, and had been an active and vigorous man until his last brief illness.

General Gardiner was born in New York in 1830 and served with honor in the Civil War, having been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his distinguished services at Gettysburg. He was for a time professor of law at the United States Military Academy, and was the author of a number of valuable books on historical subjects. He served for a short time as acting assistant secretary of war. He was a lawyer of ability and a distinguished orator.

General Gardiner was well known in Newport, where he had been a frequent visitor, making it a point to come here for the annual meetings of the Society of the Cincinnati on each Independence Day. At the celebration of the Centennial of Perry's Victory on lake Erie, on September 10, 1913, General Gardiner delivered the oration from the bandstand on the Mall, and had also been heard here on other occasions. He was deeply interested in historical research and kindred subjects.